Why are nursery rhymes both a blessing for parents and important to children?

As evening sets in and parents put their children to bed, many resort to singing nursery rhymes to lull them off to sleep.

But nursery rhymes are not just a good way of calming your kids, they also teach them a few things.

Dr Georgina Nutton, an early childhood education lecturer at Charles Darwin University (CDU), said nursery rhymes provided children with the building blocks of their first language.

She said the rhyming couplets found in songs like This Old Man, Hey Diddle Diddle and Humpty Dumpty taught children patterns in language that develop as they grow.

“When they get to about [age] two or three, you will say something and your child will come up with every obscene rhyming word that goes with what you’ve said,” Dr Nutton said.

“It’s just a playful use of language but it tells us that the child understands those phonemic patterns.”

‘Like filling a piggy bank’

CDU special education lecturer and speech pathologist Dr Bea Staley said nursery rhymes were certainly not integral to a child’s development, but they did help.

“You can get by without them, but why would you?

“From a language standpoint, little kids are a like a piggy bank and you’ve got to keep putting words in because when they get to school, school is going to start withdrawing that cash.

“The more words they’ve got at that point, the better they tend to do at school.”

She said it was the repetitive nature of most nursery rhymes that taught children how sounds and sentences worked.

“Really, they are one of the best predictors of future reading proficiency when kids get to school,” she said.

“And when you see that phenomena where kids just magically learn to read, it’s those kids who usually have lots of experience with things like nursery rhymes, rhyme play and sound play.”

Can I make up my own rhymes?

From a speech pathology point of view, Dr Staley said parents making up their own songs or rhymes had its benefits but they needed to show some caution.

“Traditional nursery rhymes already have the rhyme and the cadence, the things that children need,” she said.

“If you’re making up your own nursery rhymes you might be undoing some of that, but I still think it would be a good language activity.”

Dr Nutton said from an early childhood education perspective, growing children needed a growing vocabulary and made-up songs could offer that.

“There’s a lot of fun that you can have making up silly songs and rhyming as your child gets older,” she said.

“[But] if you’re enjoying what you’re doing and you’re having fun with it, that’s what they will learn, rather than the specific content of the rhyme or the song.”

Any song will do

While rhymes, whether traditional or made up, may be the best for developing language and filling your child’s vocabulary piggy bank, Dr Nutton said there was nothing wrong with simply singing your child to sleep.

“I wouldn’t suggest too much heavy metal at bed time, but anything that’s really familiar to you and has a bit of a rhythm to it can be used.

“While you’re singing your tone will drop a little and you’ll be using nice rhythmic patterns, but there’s also a level of how familiar your child is with your particular voice.

“From before they’re born they’re hearing your voice so that creates a sense of security and familiarity.”

生词记录

nursery rhyme 儿歌，童谣

blessing 祝福；好事，幸事；同意，支持，许可

set in (不好的事)到来，开始（而且可能会持续）

resort to sth （别无办法的情况下）诉诸，依靠，采用

lull 使安静，使平和，使发困

building block 积木；基础，构成要素

couplet 对句（尤指长度、韵脚相同的）

obscene （数量等）大的惊人的，骇人听闻的；猥亵的，淫秽的，下流的

phonemic 音位的，音素的

piggy bank 存钱罐

pathologist 病理学家

integral 构成整体所必需的

withdraw 抽回，取回，提取，撤回，退出

repetitive 重复的，反复的

predictor 预测因子，预测器

proficiency 熟练，精通

cadence （嗓音的）抑扬顿挫，起落

heavy metal 重金属摇滚乐